Canada denies secretly giving Israeli assassin a new identity after he helped kill top Hamas terrorist

A week after a Montreal businessman claimed Canada had provided a new identity and passport to an Israeli Mossad agent involved in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, the government denied the sensational story on Friday.

While Ottawa is usually reluctant to comment on national security matters, the allegation of Canadian involvement in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was apparently considered so damaging it required a response.

“There is no truth to these allegations that the government of Canada provided support to protect those wanted in the 2010 death of a Hamas leader,” said a government official with knowledge of the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The charge that the government had secretly resettled a member of the hit squad that drugged and suffocated Mr. Al-Mabhouh in a five star hotel room was made last weekend by Arian Azarbar, an Iranian-Canadian businessman.

He told the Ottawa Sun he learned about it from a Passport Canada employee with whom he had an affair. The passport officer, a member of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, had been investigating Mr. Azarbar and has since been suspended.

The murder of Mr. al-Mabhouh, a Hamas founder who procured weapons for the Iranian-backed Palestinian terror group, has been widely blamed on the Mossad’s assassination unit but Israel has never publicly confirmed it was responsible.

Canada has traditionally reacted angrily at being drawn into Israeli covert operations. The government recalled its ambassador to Israel in 1997 after two Mossad agents used fake Canadian passports during an attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan.

In the published portions of his interview, Mr. Azarbar did not explain why Canada would have agreed to assist one of the assassins, but Iran’s state-controlled press portrayed the allegations in the context of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s close relations with Israel.

“The Canadian government has said we had nothing to do with this, but it is a lie,” the Sun quoted Mr. Azarbar as saying. “The girl who was in charge of that file at Passport Canada with whom I had a relationship, she told me about it.”

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Mr. Azarbar could not be reached for comment Friday. He is reportedly identified in Montreal police documents as an Iranian spy – an allegation he denies. He has been involved in dozens of businesses, one of which does construction work in Venezuela.

After his activities in Venezuela attracted the attention of Ottawa, he met with federal agents, he said. One of them was reportedly Trina Kennedy, a Passport Canada officer working for the federal national security team.

When officials learned about her alleged personal relationship with Mr. Azarbar, which he said lasted about 18 months, she was put on leave. An internal probe is now underway and she faces possible disciplinary action. The RCMP is also investigating.

“Our government takes allegations such as these very seriously,” said Alexis Pavlich, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. “As soon as Minister Alexander was made aware of the allegations he asked officials to take swift and robust action to father the facts of this matter and to ensure security and program integrity were not compromised in any way.”